And so it ends
by Forgedevil
Summary: And so it ends... is a story following Tyler and Mercy, two simular people surviving a major attack on the uk and then taking very diffrent paths to find safty. read and review please, story updated a week early on andsoitends.. thanks.
1. Chapter 1

...and in the end.

Tyler sat down on the corner of the rough motel bed with a sigh, too long he'd been standing around in the drab, empty room, waiting, but for what he didn't know. A message burned into his head for as long as he could remember, 2/10/2010 Trident motel, Pontheaven South Wales. He didn't know where it had come from but it was there, every time he closed his eyes, painted on his sub-conscience. Patience exhausted, he stood to his fall six foot of height, again flexing his fists before slamming them against the closest wall, the dirty cream paint flaking off. It felt good but he'd know he'd regret it later and his hand ached and slowly changed from pale white to red. In the distance the clocked clicked away and Tyler looked to the time. 11:59, he rubbed his eyes trying desperately to wipe his tiredness away, any second now he'd know what the mark was all about, and before he knew it, the ground shook violently, the air grew so hot it hurt to breath and the night outside became so bright that the numbers behind his eyes were lost to it. And in an instant later, night returned to consume the light, the ground stopped moving and a chill swept over him, and certain something terribly bad had happened, and hesitating only a second, he ran to the door and threw it open, adrenaline coursing through his veins, making him awake and alert, fight or flight, his most basic of animal instincts kicking in.


	2. Chapter 2

Outside his motel room was carnage like nothing he could ever have imagined, likened only to the mad rampages he'd witness in the Rambo films, cars were upturned and fires raged all around, Pontheaven, the town a mere 5 miles away was blazing like a bonfire on fireworks night. The sky fall of ashes and the screams, blood curling screams of agony from all around him. He realised he'd stopped breathing and took in a deep breath, the smoke chocking him as he remained in the door way. His eyes drifted from left to right, taking in the burned bodies, some half hanging out of cars in the parking lot and roads in front, and as he turned to his room to run for his phone, he saw that the motel around him was all but gone, burned to a cinder as if a flash fire and ripped and gutted the building, Tyler's room was the least damaged, it generic cheap metal bed hissed and cracked as it cooled from the sudden heat, the dirty cream walls black with smoke damage and the phone melted to a crisp on the burned out bed side table. He looked outside again as the inferno around him raged.

A desperate cry from nearby grabbed his focus and he ran out of his room for the sound, a little boy, cuts and bruises all over his little body, cloths burned and bloody and he knelt there pulling at the lifeless burned body of what he could only imaging was the boy's mother, her features locked in pain of the likes Tyler couldn't imagine. The pleas of the boy, lost and confused, asking his mum to get up tore through his heart as tears threatened to slide down his cheek. Tyler knelt by the boy and gently rested his hand on the child's shoulder gripping gently as the child finally broke down, resting his head on his mothers, weeping his heart out. After a few minutes Tyler and the boy stood, Tyler gave his name to the boy, and the boy gave his back to Tyler, Paul, he had said, still crying over his mother and furiously wiping at the relentless stream of tears falling down his cheeks, and in that moment, Tyler promised to take care of the boy Paul, Promised his most heartfelt promise, one in which he would never break, no matter what were to happen.

The dust and smoke parted after a few minutes more just enough to show other people in the smoke stumbling about., men looking for their wife's and children, women their husbands and kids and children looking for their mums and dads, everyone lost and looking. Some were just walking around aimlessly, just helping where they could help the most, most however were to hurt to do more than crawl or stumble around, pain stricken faces and tear filled eyes and the desperate cries for help and the frantic search for loved ones. Tears and screams were the main thing and filled the air from everywhere around him, more damaging to him than the foul ash he breathed and the heat of the fire which burned all around him. And again a light flashed in the distance so bright in burned into his eyes and now when he blinked the numbers and location were gone for good from his mind, erased forever, a second later, another tremor shook the ground knocking people off their feet and crashing them to the floor, followed by a loud roar and the brick work of the motel behind finally gave into the damage it had suffered and collapsed in on itself, again shooting vast amounts of smoke and grit into the air to mix with the smoke and flames already present.

"What the hell was that!" one man shouted, panic plain in his features, his black business suit torn to shreds as he looked from the direction of the blast through the flame wall which surround them all and then to the collapsed building behind them..

Tyler wiped his eyes clear and cleared his ash covered brown hair out of the way while thinking of the most delicate way to put his knowledge to use. "A missile" he said finally when no one else spoke up to the business mans words, and it dawned on him what had really happened; what it meant. "It was a missile, a bomb, whatever you want to call it, but it was a big one" his nervous hands shook as he spoke out loud more to himself than to the others around.

The business man then broke into a nervous laugh, raking his hand through his bolding hair as he too realised what had happened while others around mimicked him or broke into more tears.

As Tyler looked around himself, the night had become alive with fire; it danced majestically over and around downed building and cars making little difference about what it consumed. And he could already tell from the distance, that the town a mere five miles away was completely gone, buildings still stood but he couldn't imagine people surviving that when even five miles away, the damage was so catastrophic. He softly took the little boy Pauls hand in his and walked out of the parking lot and down the road toward the town of Pontheaven. No doubt on his mind about the kind of horrors he would see there, but hopeful, that if anything, there would be the place there that would hold salvation or at the very least, the supplies they'd need to survive, and with a group of survivors that were willing to make the walk in hopes of finding help, they started to walk the five miles following behind Tyler, each searching for their own answers.


	3. Chapter 3

Mercy, joined the group about a mile or two from Pontheaven, she had been in her car heading toward Pontheaven when the first blast hit. The night going blinding white before her as she drove home after her late night shift at the office in which she worked. Her car stuttered to a painful stop, the seatbelt locking in place crushing her chest and she struggled for breath, panic holding on to her like a vice, squeezing until she couldn't take the pain any more. The light in front of her went and the darkness returned only to be followed by another flash seconds later, this time further off. A transit van behind slammed hard and fast into the rear of her small Ford KA, jolting it a good five feet forward and she in turn back ended the stopped car in front, but all she could think about was the pain in her chest, the aching whenever she breathed, it took her a while to think to get out of the car, her senses slowly coming back, the horror crystal clear in her green eyes. She wiped her face with shaking hands, clearing her blond long hair out of the way and realised for the first time she was crying. She unclipped her seat belt taking in a welcomed and stuttered breath before she touched the door and let out a scream of pain, the scorching heat of it blistering her hand almost instantly and she pulled he hand in toward her, cradling it in the other hand, trying to nurse it, but seconds later and to her relief she heard her would be savour knock on the back window, shouting for her to duck before he smashed open the rear window and shouted in again to see if she was ok.

In minutes she had crawled out of the back window with the help of the man who introduced himself as James before falling onto the floor in a heap and as she looked at the devastation around her, the tangle of cars in the pile up, the wall of fire which rushed along the sides of the roads and tearing through the homes of the residential area, and the fog of ash which limited all she could see where ever she looked, a blanket so thick that she could barely make out or see much around her.

"Oh God" she repeated over and over looked over and over at the damage and devastation, taking in the human cost of what had happened. And she kept repeating the words to herself until the man standing opposite her shock her harshly out of her panicked trance.

"You ok?" he asked with a strong American accent checking over her to make sure, taking note of her business like cloths, formal black trousers and jacket and smoke stained white blouse, his eyes stopped on hers as she looked up at him, green emerald eyes to his sapphire blue looked at him, her eyes and high cheek bones giving her face an exotic softness.

"I'm not sure" she replied at the odd question given the circumstance. She looked around and wished so much that the images of what she saw would go and never come back to haunt her, though she know they would. The driver in the white van that had hit the back of her car had his head half threw the windscreen, his seat belt tight around his neck and his head bent at the complete wrong angle, eyes lifeless and empty as blood still weaved down the shattered glass. Then darkness completely engulfed her shutting out all she could see. As soon as he saw what she was looking at, James quickly covered her eyes with a hand and with his free hand, gently moved her head in his direction, only removing his hands when he had her attention.

"Look ma'am, you don't need to see that," he said with a sad edge to his voice, "and we best get you out of here as quick as possible little lady" he jokingly added, taking note of her short height which he guessed to be around five foot five, five foot six., "that hand won't heal itself" he said, smiling a wide smile, which faltered at the edges. His voice however reassuring her and making her feel safe in ways she couldn't explain from such a stranger, the man just radiated 'safe' to her. The gentleness of him and his voice erased all in the horrific events of last few minutes which had happened.

It was then the laughter erupted around them both, manly laughter, thick with malice and dread. The sort of ordinary people you see every day surrounded them both, revenge clear on their faces, so clear that all Mercy could do was shut her eyes and cover her ears, praying that they left just as fast as they appeared, leaving them alone. But even with her ears covered she heard the muffled shouting as much as she wished she couldn't. The somewhat ordinary men around her blamed her hero for the 'attack' stating it could only have been Americans like himself which had the ability to do such a thing, James tried to defend himself stating that he was here, how could it possibility have been anything to do with him, he was just as lucky as they were to be alive. He tried desperately to reason with the mob but he impossibly outnumbered and the mob wanted blood, they wanted revenge for what had happened. All Mercy could do was hum a lullaby to drown out the sounds of shouting and crying, anger and agony. Withdrawing her mind to a place where it would be safe from the outside world.

Eventually a hand brushed her knee as she knelt on the floor rocking back and forth, still humming to herself, unaware that the noises which had risen had passed and receded. She cracked open her eyes very slowly, just enough to see the American, James, laying on the floor in front of her. Blood and tears covered his badly beaten face, his arms had deep bloody gashes along them where it looked like he had tried to defend himself, his cloths torn to shreds, and he had the unmistakeable twist of pain to his features. His blond hair covered with red streaks and his blue eyes showing his fear to the world. Mercy silently crawled over to him, the full focus of her eyes on him. As she got up next to James, she pulled his head gently into her lap and rested it there, looking down at him as he struggled to breath, blood still bubbling at the corner of his mouth. Again she cried, thinking of the cruelty and un-justice done. He has saved her from her car when he could have left to save himself and in returned he had been beaten to within an inch of his life and left to die.

The flames around them continued to dance, grow and burn ever brighter, lighting the sky far into the distance and clearing the smoke so much so she could see the muggers, that brute gang that had caused so much pain run off in search of their next victim in all this ciaos. And James, with his head in her lap looked into her eyes and with what effort he could muster, wiped away her tears.

"Please don't cry miss" he said as clearly as he could, blood now dripping down the sides of his mouth instead of bubbling.

"I played my part, your alive, that's all that matters now." He said smiling before he coughed and choked, and as hard as she tried, her throat became dry and tight and she struggled to hold her tears back for the man who had just saved her.

Mercy and the man James talked for a few minutes, each one becoming harder than the last for them both, her throat ached in protests as his slowly filled with blood. Tears sitting behind her eyes the whole time as his slowly shut before he slowly gave in to the pain and died in her arms, and finally, tears ran tracks down her face and she cried, cried until she had no tears left to give.

The man who she didn't know, and who didn't know her, had saved her life and his reward was to lose his. And as time pasted and minutes turned to an hour, the street in which she sat filled with the sounds so murmurs, talking and cries which rivalled her own.

A soft hand gently touched Mercy's shoulder and she flinched away putting her back to the warm rear of her KA letting James head lull to the side as it fell to the floor lifeless. She moved away again before the brown haired man could touch her again, putting James body between her and him. Fear gripping her again as more and more people filed in behind him and rights on his heels a little boy, no more than nine years old.


	4. Chapter 4

Tyler knelt beside the man's body in front of him, and rolled up the sleeve of his black shirt up past his elbow before wiping his dirty sweaty hands in his blue jeans. With his hands as clean as possible, he raised his hand to the man's forehead whispering a silent prayer to himself and slid his hand down closing the dead man's eyes for the last time.

Tyler then looked up at the women as she cowered; giving a quick cheek over her to make sure she was ok. He then stood up and with a reassuring face in place; he extended his hand in greeting.

"Hi lady, my name is Tyler" he said and as she gave just blank unblinking eyes back to him, he lowered his hand and rubbed it against his other elbow. Sadness drifted over him for what seemed like the thousandth time tonight. He was just as lost and confused as the rest of these people, who was he to comfort and to lead. With everything going on he felt lost to his own mind and sat down opposite the women, Paul the little boy sat down next to Tyler and rested his head in Tyler's side. The fires and fogs of smoke and ash around them surrounded them, there destructive powers now warming Tyler's heart as he saw a hundred memories in the flickering flames. Good memories, happy ones.

"Miss, I'm sorry about your friend" he said gesturing toward the fallen man. "Truly I am, there's enough death tonight, but look" he pleaded, pointing to those around him. "There's hope because we are alive, and there's hope that we will find help, we've all lost here, all we can do is look for what's left."

Mercy looked up then, his pleading reaching through to her battered mind, and her thoughts filled with those of her family. She wipes her eyes with her shaking hands rubbing furiously and when she stopped, she blinking in rapid succession, she would find her family, if it was the last thing she was going to do. With no words to the man Tyler, she got to her feet, struggling for balance as her knees threatened to give out under her. She walked to her car door and taking off her jacket, used it to cover and protect her hand from the heat of her burning car as she opened the door and grabbed for her bag containing her phone, money and other various items. She leaned back out then banging the back of her head on the car roof sending splintering pain thought her head. She cursed over and over, shouting at everything and anything before finally calming herself down enough to realised that a number of people who looked relatively ok were looking towards her as if she had finally lost her mind, not that a number of the whimpering, blabbering others hadn't already, caged in their own minds. Mercy did however have the decency left to feel embarrassed about the outburst enough for her cheeks to fill and become blushed. She sighed releasing as much tension from her body as she could at the time and introduced herself to Tyler as Mercy Fisher.


	5. Chapter 5

* Home

* About the Author

* ...And so it ends.

* Guestbook

...And so it ends.

...and in the end.

Tyler sat down on the corner of the rough motel bed with a sigh, too long he'd been standing around in the drab, empty room, waiting, but for what he didn't know. A message burned into his head for as long as he could remember, 2/10/2010 Trident motel, Pontheaven South Wales. He didn't know where it had come from but it was there, every time he closed his eyes, painted on his sub-conscience. Patience exhausted, he stood to his fall six foot of height, again flexing his fists before slamming them against the closest wall, the dirty cream paint flaking off. It felt good but he'd know he'd regret it later and his hand ached and slowly changed from pale white to red. In the distance the clocked clicked away and Tyler looked to the time. 11:59, he rubbed his eyes trying desperately to wipe his tiredness away, any second now he'd know what the mark was all about, and before he knew it, the ground shook violently, the air grew so hot it hurt to breath and the night outside became so bright that the numbers behind his eyes were lost to it. And in an instant later, night returned to consume the light, the ground stopped moving and a chill swept over him, and certain something terribly bad had happened, and hesitating only a second, he ran to the door and threw it open, adrenaline coursing through his veins, making him awake and alert, fight or flight, his most basic of animal instincts kicking in.

Outside his motel room was carnage like nothing he could ever have imagined, likened only to the mad rampages he'd witness in the Rambo films, cars were upturned and fires raged all around, Pontheaven, the town a mere 5 miles away was blazing like a bonfire on fireworks night. The sky fall of ashes and the screams, blood curling screams of agony from all around him. He realised he'd stopped breathing and took in a deep breath, the smoke chocking him as he remained in the door way. His eyes drifted from left to right, taking in the burned bodies, some half hanging out of cars in the parking lot and roads in front, and as he turned to his room to run for his phone, he saw that the motel around him was all but gone, burned to a cinder as if a flash fire and ripped and gutted the building, Tyler's room was the least damaged, it generic cheap metal bed hissed and cracked as it cooled from the sudden heat, the dirty cream walls black with smoke damage and the phone melted to a crisp on the burned out bed side table. He looked outside again as the inferno around him raged.

A desperate cry from nearby grabbed his focus and he ran out of his room for the sound, a little boy, cuts and bruises all over his little body, cloths burned and bloody and he knelt there pulling at the lifeless burned body of what he could only imaging was the boy's mother, her features locked in pain of the likes Tyler couldn't imagine. The pleas of the boy, lost and confused, asking his mum to get up tore through his heart as tears threatened to slide down his cheek. Tyler knelt by the boy and gently rested his hand on the child's shoulder gripping gently as the child finally broke down, resting his head on his mothers, weeping his heart out. After a few minutes Tyler and the boy stood, Tyler gave his name to the boy, and the boy gave his back to Tyler, Paul, he had said, still crying over his mother and furiously wiping at the relentless stream of tears falling down his cheeks, and in that moment, Tyler promised to take care of the boy Paul, Promised his most heartfelt promise, one in which he would never break, no matter what were to happen.

The dust and smoke parted after a few minutes more just enough to show other people in the smoke stumbling about., men looking for their wife's and children, women their husbands and kids and children looking for their mums and dads, everyone lost and looking. Some were just walking around aimlessly, just helping where they could help the most, most however were to hurt to do more than crawl or stumble around, pain stricken faces and tear filled eyes and the desperate cries for help and the frantic search for loved ones. Tears and screams were the main thing and filled the air from everywhere around him, more damaging to him than the foul ash he breathed and the heat of the fire which burned all around him. And again a light flashed in the distance so bright in burned into his eyes and now when he blinked the numbers and location were gone for good from his mind, erased forever, a second later, another tremor shook the ground knocking people off their feet and crashing them to the floor, followed by a loud roar and the brick work of the motel behind finally gave into the damage it had suffered and collapsed in on itself, again shooting vast amounts of smoke and grit into the air to mix with the smoke and flames already present.

"What the hell was that!" one man shouted, panic plain in his features, his black business suit torn to shreds as he looked from the direction of the blast through the flame wall which surround them all and then to the collapsed building behind them..

Tyler wiped his eyes clear and cleared his ash covered brown hair out of the way while thinking of the most delicate way to put his knowledge to use. "A missile" he said finally when no one else spoke up to the business mans words, and it dawned on him what had really happened; what it meant. "It was a missile, a bomb, whatever you want to call it, but it was a big one" his nervous hands shook as he spoke out loud more to himself than to the others around.

The business man then broke into a nervous laugh, raking his hand through his bolding hair as he too realised what had happened while others around mimicked him or broke into more tears.

As Tyler looked around himself, the night had become alive with fire; it danced majestically over and around downed building and cars making little difference about what it consumed. And he could already tell from the distance, that the town a mere five miles away was completely gone, buildings still stood but he couldn't imagine people surviving that when even five miles away, the damage was so catastrophic. He softly took the little boy Pauls hand in his and walked out of the parking lot and down the road toward the town of Pontheaven. No doubt on his mind about the kind of horrors he would see there, but hopeful, that if anything, there would be the place there that would hold salvation or at the very least, the supplies they'd need to survive, and with a group of survivors that were willing to make the walk in hopes of finding help, they started to walk the five miles following behind Tyler, each searching for their own answers.

Mercy, joined the group about a mile or two from Pontheaven, she had been in her car heading toward Pontheaven when the first blast hit. The night going blinding white before her as she drove home after her late night shift at the office in which she worked. Her car stuttered to a painful stop, the seatbelt locking in place crushing her chest and she struggled for breath, panic holding on to her like a vice, squeezing until she couldn't take the pain any more. The light in front of her went and the darkness returned only to be followed by another flash seconds later, this time further off. A transit van behind slammed hard and fast into the rear of her small Ford KA, jolting it a good five feet forward and she in turn back ended the stopped car in front, but all she could think about was the pain in her chest, the aching whenever she breathed, it took her a while to think to get out of the car, her senses slowly coming back, the horror crystal clear in her green eyes. She wiped her face with shaking hands, clearing her blond long hair out of the way and realised for the first time she was crying. She unclipped her seat belt taking in a welcomed and stuttered breath before she touched the door and let out a scream of pain, the scorching heat of it blistering her hand almost instantly and she pulled he hand in toward her, cradling it in the other hand, trying to nurse it, but seconds later and to her relief she heard her would be savour knock on the back window, shouting for her to duck before he smashed open the rear window and shouted in again to see if she was ok.

In minutes she had crawled out of the back window with the help of the man who introduced himself as James before falling onto the floor in a heap and as she looked at the devastation around her, the tangle of cars in the pile up, the wall of fire which rushed along the sides of the roads and tearing through the homes of the residential area, and the fog of ash which limited all she could see where ever she looked, a blanket so thick that she could barely make out or see much around her.

"Oh God" she repeated over and over looked over and over at the damage and devastation, taking in the human cost of what had happened. And she kept repeating the words to herself until the man standing opposite her shock her harshly out of her panicked trance.

"You ok?" he asked with a strong American accent checking over her to make sure, taking note of her business like cloths, formal black trousers and jacket and smoke stained white blouse, his eyes stopped on hers as she looked up at him, green emerald eyes to his sapphire blue looked at him, her eyes and high cheek bones giving her face an exotic softness.

"I'm not sure" she replied at the odd question given the circumstance. She looked around and wished so much that the images of what she saw would go and never come back to haunt her, though she know they would. The driver in the white van that had hit the back of her car had his head half threw the windscreen, his seat belt tight around his neck and his head bent at the complete wrong angle, eyes lifeless and empty as blood still weaved down the shattered glass. Then darkness completely engulfed her shutting out all she could see. As soon as he saw what she was looking at, James quickly covered her eyes with a hand and with his free hand, gently moved her head in his direction, only removing his hands when he had her attention.

"Look ma'am, you don't need to see that," he said with a sad edge to his voice, "and we best get you out of here as quick as possible little lady" he jokingly added, taking note of her short height which he guessed to be around five foot five, five foot six., "that hand won't heal itself" he said, smiling a wide smile, which faltered at the edges. His voice however reassuring her and making her feel safe in ways she couldn't explain from such a stranger, the man just radiated 'safe' to her. The gentleness of him and his voice erased all in the horrific events of last few minutes which had happened.

It was then the laughter erupted around them both, manly laughter, thick with malice and dread. The sort of ordinary people you see every day surrounded them both, revenge clear on their faces, so clear that all Mercy could do was shut her eyes and cover her ears, praying that they left just as fast as they appeared, leaving them alone. But even with her ears covered she heard the muffled shouting as much as she wished she couldn't. The somewhat ordinary men around her blamed her hero for the 'attack' stating it could only have been Americans like himself which had the ability to do such a thing, James tried to defend himself stating that he was here, how could it possibility have been anything to do with him, he was just as lucky as they were to be alive. He tried desperately to reason with the mob but he impossibly outnumbered and the mob wanted blood, they wanted revenge for what had happened. All Mercy could do was hum a lullaby to drown out the sounds of shouting and crying, anger and agony. Withdrawing her mind to a place where it would be safe from the outside world.

Eventually a hand brushed her knee as she knelt on the floor rocking back and forth, still humming to herself, unaware that the noises which had risen had passed and receded. She cracked open her eyes very slowly, just enough to see the American, James, laying on the floor in front of her. Blood and tears covered his badly beaten face, his arms had deep bloody gashes along them where it looked like he had tried to defend himself, his cloths torn to shreds, and he had the unmistakeable twist of pain to his features. His blond hair covered with red streaks and his blue eyes showing his fear to the world. Mercy silently crawled over to him, the full focus of her eyes on him. As she got up next to James, she pulled his head gently into her lap and rested it there, looking down at him as he struggled to breath, blood still bubbling at the corner of his mouth. Again she cried, thinking of the cruelty and un-justice done. He has saved her from her car when he could have left to save himself and in returned he had been beaten to within an inch of his life and left to die.

The flames around them continued to dance, grow and burn ever brighter, lighting the sky far into the distance and clearing the smoke so much so she could see the muggers, that brute gang that had caused so much pain run off in search of their next victim in all this ciaos. And James, with his head in her lap looked into her eyes and with what effort he could muster, wiped away her tears.

"Please don't cry miss" he said as clearly as he could, blood now dripping down the sides of his mouth instead of bubbling.

"I played my part, your alive, that's all that matters now." He said smiling before he coughed and choked, and as hard as she tried, her throat became dry and tight and she struggled to hold her tears back for the man who had just saved her.

Mercy and the man James talked for a few minutes, each one becoming harder than the last for them both, her throat ached in protests as his slowly filled with blood. Tears sitting behind her eyes the whole time as his slowly shut before he slowly gave in to the pain and died in her arms, and finally, tears ran tracks down her face and she cried, cried until she had no tears left to give.

The man who she didn't know, and who didn't know her, had saved her life and his reward was to lose his. And as time pasted and minutes turned to an hour, the street in which she sat filled with the sounds so murmurs, talking and cries which rivalled her own.

A soft hand gently touched Mercy's shoulder and she flinched away putting her back to the warm rear of her KA letting James head lull to the side as it fell to the floor lifeless. She moved away again before the brown haired man could touch her again, putting James body between her and him. Fear gripping her again as more and more people filed in behind him and rights on his heels a little boy, no more than nine years old.

Tyler knelt beside the man's body in front of him, and rolled up the sleeve of his black shirt up past his elbow before wiping his dirty sweaty hands in his blue jeans. With his hands as clean as possible, he raised his hand to the man's forehead whispering a silent prayer to himself and slid his hand down closing the dead man's eyes for the last time.

Tyler then looked up at the women as she cowered; giving a quick cheek over her to make sure she was ok. He then stood up and with a reassuring face in place; he extended his hand in greeting.

"Hi lady, my name is Tyler" he said and as she gave just blank unblinking eyes back to him, he lowered his hand and rubbed it against his other elbow. Sadness drifted over him for what seemed like the thousandth time tonight. He was just as lost and confused as the rest of these people, who was he to comfort and to lead. With everything going on he felt lost to his own mind and sat down opposite the women, Paul the little boy sat down next to Tyler and rested his head in Tyler's side. The fires and fogs of smoke and ash around them surrounded them, there destructive powers now warming Tyler's heart as he saw a hundred memories in the flickering flames. Good memories, happy ones.

"Miss, I'm sorry about your friend" he said gesturing toward the fallen man. "Truly I am, there's enough death tonight, but look" he pleaded, pointing to those around him. "There's hope because we are alive, and there's hope that we will find help, we've all lost here, all we can do is look for what's left."

Mercy looked up then, his pleading reaching through to her battered mind, and her thoughts filled with those of her family. She wipes her eyes with her shaking hands rubbing furiously and when she stopped, she blinking in rapid succession, she would find her family, if it was the last thing she was going to do. With no words to the man Tyler, she got to her feet, struggling for balance as her knees threatened to give out under her. She walked to her car door and taking off her jacket, used it to cover and protect her hand from the heat of her burning car as she opened the door and grabbed for her bag containing her phone, money and other various items. She leaned back out then banging the back of her head on the car roof sending splintering pain thought her head. She cursed over and over, shouting at everything and anything before finally calming herself down enough to realised that a number of people who looked relatively ok were looking towards her as if she had finally lost her mind, not that a number of the whimpering, blabbering others hadn't already, caged in their own minds. Mercy did however have the decency left to feel embarrassed about the outburst enough for her cheeks to fill and become blushed. She sighed releasing as much tension from her body as she could at the time and introduced herself to Tyler as Mercy Fisher.

Everyone sort of wandered around the wreckages of the cars and buildings searching for survivors like themselves and supplies for which to take with them, not knowing how long it would take to be rescued from this hell on earth and taken to safety, and also not know if there would be anything left salvaging in the town in which they were heading too. The method in which they salvaged was in itself quite complex given they had only had the last hours trying it out over a number of stops. A police officer Kyle Williams how organised to groups in such away as to bring everyone together, the wounded or unable of the group would be kept in the centre, relaying messages to the people who would venture out and return, the young and the women would search the immediate areas around the wounded and the teenagers and men would search the outlaying areas, all the while everyone keeping together with constant chatter. The shock of the attack was still taking its toll but for the most part, the people getting on with the job at hand were coping.

A short distance off from the main group however stood in a circle was the so called leaders of this band of like minded people, and with them stood Mercy. Standing in the garden of a burned down house which from what was left looked to be a white semi-detached Mercy painfully recapped the story of what had happened to her and most importantly what had happened to James. Tyler's hand at some point during the story rested on her shoulder in sympathy as he too recalled seeing Pauls mother dead on the floor with Paul grabbing for her. The group of five all too muttered there sorry and sympathies. Kyle the overall leader if you could say there was one, and Juanita Vasquez both paid particular attention to the bit about the mob attack and the fact they too had chosen to go to the town, even if not for the same reasons. With the meeting over Tyler and Mercy walked off to have a talk, Juanita and Kyle to went off to discuss matters within the group and Peter Edwards, David Smith and a teenager called Patrick Harper went off to help with the salvage effort.

Sitting with her back now against the fence, the wind blew through her hair showing Juanita's perfect face in all its glory, the flickering shadows highlighting the beauty. Her tanned Hispanic skin tone matched the lighting so well she looked like a model. Her thin petite frame, lose baggy shirt and trousers only adding to the look, it was however the cold look in her eyes which showed the real her, they were solid chocolate brown with such coldness in them and it worried Kyle to talk to her. While like minded they rubbed together like sandpaper, they just didn't get along.

"It's worrying me to go forward" he said to her in a pleading tone, frown lines creasing his face and he rearranged his police uniform for the hundredth time that night out of habit.

Juanita feeling rather argumentative however glared at him and his skin, the colour of dark chocolate lightened a few shades and he filched away.

"We have to go forward" she replied in a firm, cold voice which meant it wasn't up for discussion. And as Kyle took a step towards her and knelt next to her, her eyebrows crossed and all her beauty fell away as anger firmly took its place on her features.

"No we don't" he said firmly but softly, "we can go back the way we came, there's a town a few miles further up the road"

Juanita let out an exasperated sigh and then looked Kyle right in the eyes. "You go back the way we came then, if you're so scared of a few unarmed men, you already know there's nothing the way we came, we must go forward"

He stood then and let out a slow sigh of his own, it had been this way since they had met two or so miles away, they were both natural leaders and as such both wanted to take lead of their little group of refugees. But this time he refused to be tricked or forced into doing something which was an unnecessary risk, and would only lose more lives. "Fine" he said with force and turned on his feet to walk towards the other people, "I'm going back, and you do what you like" and just before he got out of range, he heard her say whatever.

It took a bit of time but eventually Kyle had got everyone together, the twenty or so survivors, and had explained to them everything, from Mercy joining the group, to the attack on the guy called James and the direction which the mob went, along with what both he and Juanita wanted to do. The situation was made pretty clear for everyone when one of the younger teenage boys asked if they were planning on slitting the group.

As the fire around them continued to dance, the group came to a realisation of what was happening, each of them had to make up their own minds on who they wanted to go with.

Juanita stalked over to the other side of the group, a clear division from Kyle and she said in a firm clear, loud voice, "Once you made up your minds, go to the person you want to lead you."

Six people instantly joined Juanita group and with each one, the smirk on Juanita face grew and Kyle's face dropped. It wasn't long however until over three quarters of the group had chosen, most choosing to go with 'Nita', Kyle stood there with two others, one a middle ages business man which Tyler recognised from the motel, though he still hadn't spoken to him at any great length, just enough to learn his name, Leon. And Patrick the teenager. Taking into careful consideration the likely hood of running into the mob before finding help, Tyler walked over to stand next to Kyle, Paul as always close on his heels. Mercy however thinking only of finding her family looked longingly at the man who had helped her, and then walked away, toward Nita. And with the group split, Nita wasted no time in marching her group of survivors away towards the town.


	6. Chapter 6

Kyle punched the side of a white transit van with force enough to dent the side panel, Tyler and Paul both looked to him as did Leon and Patrick.

"Gather what stuff which the others left behind, it's a good," he stopped to think about his math "eight, nine miles back the way we came before we hit another town, with any look we will be there before sun up." He said as he noted the time as 1.30 a.m.

Tyler had a quick word to Paul quickly before handing him off to Patrick before walking up to Tyler and greeting him.

"You do know you did the right thing by them, you gave them the option and they made their own minds up" he laughed for the first time since everything had happened, "Hell maybe we made the wrong choice going back" he sighed, "but we made that choice, and we'll deal with it as things come, As things go, we're all lucky to be alive" his face slowly became glum. "Let's just make sure it counts for something" he said pointing toward Paul as he talked to Patrick.

Kyle gave a brisk nod and thanked Tyler for his reassurance.


End file.
